Tapping on the door once more, I finally heard the locks on the other side turn. Stepping back, I placed one hand in my joggers as the other hand firmly held my machete. The sun had set long ago, and the porch light beamed down on Jax and me just right. We were in the heart of the hood, but I still didn’t give a fuck. Tonight, I wanted to have a little fun, and no one was going to stop that.
“Y-Yes.” TJ’s mother, Mika, slowly pulled open her front door. Tightening the grip on her robe, she looked skeptically between my brother and me. “What do y’all want?”
“Good evening, ma’am. I’m Darnell.” I palmed my chest before pointing toward my brother. “And this is my twin brother, Darrell. We just wanted to stop by and ask you a question or two. With so much evil going on in the world, are you prepared for Jehovah's return?”
“I’m not interested!” She went to close the door, but my boot stopped her. “Young man, it’s late, and I’m tired. I don’t have time for your mess tonight.”
“Fine by me.” I kicked her door in, pushing her back inside in the process. “The sooner you tell me where your bitch-ass son is, the sooner I can kill his ass.”
Falling to the floor, she watched in fear as Jax and Marshall filed into the small duplex townhouse behind me. Jax darted up the stairs as Marshall checked the bottom floor to make sure wewere alone. Angling my head to the side, I watched comically as she dragged her eyes to my hand that was clutching Kimbo as she crawled back in fear.
“W-What do you want from me?” she cried loudly as she scooted across the floor. The sound of her blaring television upstairs drowned her out. “I don’t have any money?—”
“Where the fuck is TJ?” I crouched down and asked. “Your son has fucked with the wrong one, and I’m killing him. The only questions here tonight are, will you be burying him or joining him in hell withUncle Tyreek? I have no qualms about organizing a family reunion for you muthafuckas.”
“Aye, bro,” Jax called out before walking downstairs, dragging a woman behind him that I’d only seen in pictures. “I found your granny in the bathroom, nigga.”
Hearing steps behind me, I knew it was Marshall joining us, and when he didn’t say anything, I knew Aerial McKnight was our only extra guest this evening. It was a shame because I came here with intentions to find TJ and kill whoever was in his mama’s house to get to him. I never thought I’d see someone in this lady’s house that had the same last name as me.
Mika’s wide eyes took me in before turning to Aerial, slowly piecing together Jax’s and my words. My eyes followed her as she stood to her feet, still clutching the robe for dear life. “Y-You’re Jaseon’s boy?”
“I’m a grown-ass man with little patience and an itch to splatter these molded-ass walls with your brains, but yeah, Jay is my father. Now, I’m going to ask you one more time, where is your son?”
“Fuck you!” She reared back and hawked spit in my face. “Fuck you! Fuck your father! Fuck your whore of a mother! It’s because of her that Tyreek was taken from me! I hope he kills her! I hope my boy kills you all!”
Using the back of my leather-gloved hand, I wiped the saliva from my cheek. Eyeing it with disgust, I dragged my eyes back to Mika. She went from fuming to frightened in an instant. I’d never been one to put my hands on women, but this bitch had me fucked up.
Whap!
I backhanded her with all my might, causing her to fall into her entertainment center. I didn’t give Mika time to recover before I began slicing at her frame. Blood splattered all over the place as I moved my arms wildly, opening the flesh all over her body and face. Aerial gasped at the sight, and I heard Jax tell her to stay put or he was going to have to explain to his mama how he hit an elderly woman tonight. I was too fired up to acknowledge his statement, but he wasn’t lying about telling Mama what he’d done. He was the sibling who couldn’t keep anything from Breonna.
“Don’t you ever in your trash-ass life disrespect me or my parents again!” I hissed, ignoring Mika’s screams and pleas for me to stop. “You love that nigga and your bitch of a son to death, right?” I sliced her hands off as she held them up to defend herself. “Fuck it, you can die with them.”
“Wait! Don’t… kill me,” she mumbled through the blood filling her mouth. “She’s the one… she asked my boy to find your daddy… to kill him for killing Josiah…” While she couldn’t move her body much, Mika shifted her eyes in the direction of my grandmother.
Jax reared his head back as if he’d been slapped before rounding it to look Aerial in the face. “That true, Gran-Gran? You trying to kill your son?”
Aerial kissed her teeth loudly and rolled her eyes so hard, I thought they were going to fall out. “If he’d just shared some of his money with his father, none of this would have happened. Jaseon was stingy, and when his father went missing, I knewhe’d killed the love of my life. I didn’t want to leave my boys as children, but I knew my sister could?—”
More annoyed than ever, I couldn’t stop the guffaw that tore from my mouth and cut her off. “Lady, is you cool? From what I know, you and that man abandoned my father and uncle. He didn’t owe y’all shit except exactly what ole Josiah got, and whatyou’reabout to get too.”
Once my words clicked in her mind, Aerial began screaming and pulling away from Jax. Saving my energy for the mother of the nigga I actually had beef with, I walked over and simply pushed half of Kimbo into her chest, killing her instantly. I wasn’t about to argue with anyone who had done or was associated with any attempt against my family. Aerial may have been my grandmother on paper, but in real life, the bitch meant nothing to me. My father had told me enough that I figured he would feel the same way, but we would cross that bridge when we got there. Tonight was about TJ—these women were just collateral damage, but now knowing they wanted my father dead, too, meant I’d gotten ahead of threats that could’ve caused us harm in the future.
Letting Aerial’s body drop, Jax cussed as he surveyed the blood on his shoes and clothes. “Nigga! You could’ve told me to move or something. Damn, I just got this set and these Jordans.”
Ignoring my brother’s complaints and Marshall’s laughs, I turned to see that Mika had fallen from the entertainment center onto her knees. I marched over and pried her mouth open, pulling her tongue out as far as I could. The amount of blood spilling from her mouth, body, and stumps was an adrenaline rush like no other. She used her bloodied stumps to try to push me off her while also trying to bite me. Her efforts were commendable, but not enough to stop the blood boiling through my veins, sending my adrenaline into overdrive. As I sliced her tongue from her mouth, blood oozed from her lips as hermumbled screams turned into silence. Her body shook, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before she bled out. Grabbing her by her matted-ass hair, I couldn’t help but snarl due to my hatred.
“You and your bitch-ass boy should have left well enough alone. You want to know something, my Pops did kill that nigga.” Her tears fell harder at my revelation. I grinned as her eyes began to roll to the back of her head. This bitch was on her way out, and I knew the gates of hell awaited her. “It had nothing to do with my mother, but everything to do with him being a bitch. Your son? Your baby boy? I’m going to enjoy killing him. It won’t be quick, and it’ll be just as messy as yours and my grandma over there. Rot in hell, bitch.”
Taking my machete, I held her head back and carved her neck from ear to ear. I stood with it still in my hand and watched as her limp body hit the floor. Looking around the room, my eyes locked in on the utility closet.
“Nigga, you better not.” Jax rasped as I pulled out the broom. “Slash…”
Ignoring him, I attached the head to the broomstick and watched as blood saturated the handle. Her eyes, still wide from shock, stared at me. Walking over to the window, I pushed the curtain back, propping the broomstick up as if it were Halloween decor.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here.” The words gritted through my teeth as my body buzzed from the kill. “Fuck that dead-ass bitch. She missed her baby daddy so bad, she’s now with that nigga. Her hoe-ass son is next.”
With her blood still dripping from the handle, I opened her front door, stepping into the night’s downpour. TJ had awakened something in me that I tried my hardest to keep buried. He had poked the bear one too many times, and now there was no coming back from it. For years, he had been pestering me, tormenting me with his presence andslick comments. He should have taken notes from his father’s mistakes and stayed the fuck away from me and mine, but since he wanted to fuck with a McKnight, his life as he knew it was over. And soon, it wouldn’t even exist.
